City estimates high in comparison with other stadia demolitions.
The expected price tag to demolish the Reliant Astrodome that Harris County officials have cited in recent years far exceeds the cost of razing other stadiums across the country, including domes of comparable size.
Officials with the Harris County Sports and Convention Corp. are preparing to release a study next month comparing the cost of knocking down the Dome with the price of renovating it in several forms.
Willie Loston, executive director of the Sports Corp., said the estimated cost of demolition is lower than that produced by a similar study two years ago, but declined to say the new number before members of Commissioners Court are informed.
The 2010 study estimated the cost of demolition at $78 million, including $10 million for asbestos removal and $10 million to put a “plaza” on the site after demolition. That does not include the $29.9 million the county still owes on the building, which has sat empty since the city deemed it unfit for occupancy in 2009, and has not been home to a team for more than a decade.
The priciest stadium demolition a Houston Chronicle examination found was $22 million for New York’s Yankee Stadium, which was completed in 2010. Indianapolis’ RCA Dome cost $13 million to raze in 2008.
The Seattle Kingdome was imploded in 2000 for about $10 million, as was Giants Stadium in New Jersey, which was razed in 2010. All had seating capacities similar to or larger than the Astrodome.
Edgardo Colon, board chairman for the Sports Corp., said several factors would drive up the cost of a Dome demolition, including its proximity to Reliant Stadium and its 30-foot-deep concrete substructure.
Loston added that the water table is high at the site, and said engineers have told him no building constructed like the Astrodome has been imploded.
“This is not your basic metro-dome implosion or anything like that, where there’s only parking lot that’s surrounding the stadium,” Colon said. “It’s a much more complicated endeavor.”
Demolition experts said the county’s estimate sounds high. Issues such as the substructure and proximity to other buildings, they said, are common with many demolition jobs.
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